Children, Identity and the Past

Book excerpt: In this volume, fourteen authors representing different academic fields and traditions present their work on children in past societies: how to recognise children in the archaeological record, the conditions of their lives and deaths and how they may have been perceived by their contemporaries. The case studies, from a number of European sites, cover a time-span from the Palaeolithic to the Middle Ages. A central theme in many of the contributions is socialisation and education as part of identity-forming processes. What was it like to be a child in Palaeolithic times? How did the Early Medieval Church approach the teaching of children? Socialisation is a theme echoed also in the two papers dealing with teaching children of today about the past, as the authors discuss how the past can be used in present identity-forming processes. During the last c. 20 years, the archaeology of children has been enriching our understandings of the past. The papers in this volume make us realise that the study of children will have a profound impact on the study of past societies in general, challenging us to reconsider established notions of prehistoric community life. The past will never be the same after its children have entered the scene…